Ferrari to Showcase Their 70 Most Important Cars Ever at Goodwood Festival of Speed

Great Britain will be treated to an up close and personal view of 70 of the most important Ferraris ever built.

Goodwood to celebrate 70 years of Ferrari at the 2017 Festival of Speed. (Photo: AFP Relaxnews)

The world's biggest automotive garden party is almost here and with it a celebration of 70 years of the Prancing Horse.

Between Thursday, June 29 and Sunday, July 2, victors to Goodwood House in West Sussex, Great Britain will be treated to an up close and personal view of 70 of the most important Ferraris ever built. And rather than simply sitting in state, many of these priceless works of automotive art will be taking to the track in competition.

The theme for this year's festival is ‘Peaks of Performance - Motorsport's Game-Changers' and will be personified by a collection of cars that were so extraordinary upon their debut that they forced a motorsports rule change. Among their number will be the 1926 Delage 15 S8 Grand Prix car, the 1937 Mercedes-Benz W125, the Lancia Delta S4 and the Ferrari 330P4 that achieved a 1-2-3 finish at Daytona in 1967.

As well as famous cars, the show will again be packed with famous drivers. Current F1 champion Nico Rosberg will be racing around the circuit, as will former world champions Damon Hill and Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen who has won the race nine-time.

In the absence of an official British motor show, the event has also become a location for car companies to unveil new models and this year McLaren will be officially revealing the 570S Spider. Mercedes is using the event to give the British public a first glance at its AMG GT concept that wowed the crowds in Geneva, and Jaguar has confirmed that its fastest sedan in history, the XE SV Project 8, will also make its global debut at this year's festival.

As always, the ‘Style et Luxe' Concours d'elegance promises a hand-picked selection of 50 of the world's most stunning historical performance cars including the original 1907 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, a selection of 250-model designation Ferraris, a selection of David Brown-era Aston Martins, 1960s Maserati GTs, and even a selection of McLaren F1 hypercars as 2017 is the car's 25th anniversary.

And, new for this year is a showcase dedicated to the automobile of the future. Future Lab will look at the biggest ideas of the moment that could shape the next generation of cars or indeed do away with them altogether. So expect autonomous racing cars, flying cars and solar-powered aeroplanes.

Keeping with the theme of cutting-edge technology, the event has hired sculptor Nick Ervinck to reimagine the trophies it will be handing out this year to competitors and to 3D-print them live as races are won and lost.